Overview

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Among them are Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David, who are in Arizona when the disaster occurs. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the Nevada night, a bird flies into ...

More About
This Book

Overview

Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.

Among them are Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David, who are in Arizona when the disaster occurs. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the Nevada night, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won't tell them what happened, where they are—or how they've been miraculously healed.

Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction-and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Adaptation is a bold contemporary science-fiction thriller from the acclaimed author of Ash.

Editorial Reviews

Booklist

"[Adaptation] would do the X-Files proud..."

BCCB

"Lo invokes a paranoid X-Files sensibility here, layering conspiracy atop conspiracy and balancing ambitious twists with nuanced relationships that are ultimately as important to the sci-fi plotting as they are to the character development."

Horn Book

Praise for Adaptation:

A CBC Best Children's Books of 2013 selection
A 2013 Top Ten Rainbow Project Book

"Absolutely compelling...the reader is tugged along, just as confused and naively hopeful as Reese herself. A sharp twist at the climax makes everything that happened before an even more satisfying puzzle to unravel."

From the Publisher

Praise for Adaptation:

A CBC Best Children's Books of 2013 selection
A 2013 Top Ten Rainbow Project Book

"Absolutely compelling...the reader is tugged along, just as confused and naively hopeful as Reese herself. A sharp twist at the climax makes everything that happened before an even more satisfying puzzle to unravel."—Horn Book

"Suspenseful, girl-powered, contemporary science fiction full of realistically diverse characters making realistic contemporary use of technology- plus hot kissing-make this book hard to resist."—VOYA

"[Adaptation] would do the X-Files proud..."

—Booklist

"..Slot this on the shelf between Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and The X-Files."—Kirkus

"Lo invokes a paranoid X-Files sensibility here, layering conspiracy atop conspiracy and balancing ambitious twists with nuanced relationships that are ultimately as important to the sci-fi plotting as they are to the character development." —BCCB

Publishers Weekly

After birds begin to fall dead from the sky and cause planes to crash across North America, mayhem erupts, and rising high school senior Reese Holloway and her debate partner, David, are forced to drive from Phoenix to San Francisco after all aircraft are grounded. Their rental car crashes near the infamous Area 51, and they wake up almost a month later in a mysterious government hospital, with no idea what happened. After being forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement, they are returned home to their worried parents. Soon, both teenagers realize they’ve changed in frightening and strange ways, landing them in the middle of a massive government cover-up. Focusing on Reese’s experience, this novel takes off like a shot, but slows a bit once Reese meets Amber, a pink-haired skateboarder who’s new to town. From there, the plot fluctuates between the romance between Reese and Amber and an action-packed SF thriller. Lo’s (Huntress) writing sparkles throughout, Reese’s efforts at self-acceptance after the accident are engaging, and the exciting ending will leave readers ready for the sequel. Ages 15–up. Agent: Laura Langlie Agency. (Sept.)

VOYA
- Paula Willey

Crash your car miles from nowhere on Nevada's Route 375, aka Extraterrestrial Highway, after a series of strange events have led to airplane crashes and highway closures, and what do you expect? Recover from life-threatening injuries only to be handed a nondisclosure agreement and be escorted home by two agents in black suits. Oh yeah, this cannot be good. What happened to debate partners Reese and David in the month following inexplicable bird attacks that shut down the nation's air traffic? How have they recuperated so quickly from their crash? And what is with the strange vertigo that Reese feels whenever she touches David, or her mom, or even total strangers? Then there is the free-spirited, pink-haired girl to whom Reese is irresistibly attracted. Lo sets up an intriguing situation for her appealing, believable characters and does a particularly nice job communicating Reese's discomfort as the unusual things she experiences and observes after she attempts to resume her normal life in San Francisco grate against everything she knows. The book loses some steam in the last third, as other characters drop away and we are back to just Reese and David, but by then it is too late for the reader. How is it going to end? Suspenseful, girl-powered, contemporary science fiction full of realistically diverse characters making realistic contemporary use of technology—plus hot kissing—make this book hard to resist. Reviewer: Paula Willey

School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up—Following their loss in the national debate championship, Reese Holloway and David Li are in the Phoenix airport awaiting their flight home to San Francisco when all flights across the U.S. are canceled due to a series of plane crashes caused by flocks of birds. While they are trying to drive home, their coach, Mr. Chapman, is shot and killed and the teens flee, only to crash in the middle of the Nevada desert. They awake nearly a month later and find themselves in a secret facility. Reese and David are told that they have received experimental medical treatments and that they must sign confidentiality agreements before they can return to their families. Reese discovers that she heals incredibly quickly and that she has strange dreams and sensory experiences. Given the location of their crash, their friend from back home wonders if the two may have been treated at Area 51. Before Reese can process any of this, she meets and finds herself falling in love with Amber Gray. This lesbian relationship seems to come out of the blue for both Reese and readers, but Amber's significance is later revealed. Lo pens a near future science-fiction thriller with a romance component. Although readers may find some plot points predictable, the alien-conspiracy theory element and the fast pacing ought to draw in many readers.—Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI

Kirkus Reviews

Crashed planes, government coverups and smart teens unexpectedly mixed up in big things: science fiction for today's cynical readers indeed. After multiple horrific plane crashes caused by bird strikes, all flights are grounded. Riots break out. Reese and David, traveling home after a disastrous debate tournament, are in a near-fatal car accident near a mysterious government facility. The tension is relentless until the teens make it safely back to San Francisco, at which point romantic entanglements (Reese falls for Amber, but maybe she likes David too) detract from the strange abilities Reese and David are developing and the conspiracies they begin to unravel (with lots of men in black after them). And then things get crazier. Lo's dialogue rings true, and smart-but-sometimes-dumb Reese, from whose perspective the action unfolds, is an appealing main character aside from her romantic dithering. Too-good-to-be-true love interest Amber satisfyingly proves to indeed be too good to be true, although stalwart David, compared at one point to Captain America, remains ridiculously heroic and together throughout. Lo manages a diverse cast (Asian-American smart stud; gay conspiracy nut; debate nerd) without ever falling into stereotypes, but unfortunately, the same is not always true of the plot. Despite the weaker second half, slot this on the shelf between Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and The X-Files. (Science fiction/thriller. 13 & up)

Related Subjects

Meet the Author

Malinda is the former managing editor of AfterEllen.com, and an award-winning journalist for her work in LGBT media. She studied X-Files fan communities when she was receiving her MA in Anthropology, which is where she got the inspiration for Adaptation. She now lives in Northern California with her partner and their dog. Ash was her first novel, and received many accolades and was a finalist for the Lambda Award, Norton Award, and Morris Award among others.

Read an Excerpt

Adaptation

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

CHAPTER 1

The birds plummeted to the tarmac, wings loose and limp. They struck the ground with such force that their bodies smashed into dark slicks on the concrete.

“What the—” Reese Holloway pushed herself out of the hard plastic seat facing the floor-to-ceiling windows. Outside, heat waves rippled over the oil-stained runway. She glanced back at David, her forehead wrinkled. “Did you see that?”

David Li looked up from his book. “See what?” His dark brown eyes reflected the hard, bright daylight in tiny dots of white.

Reese tried to swallow the flutter of self-consciousness that rose within her as David met her gaze. She pointed at the windows. “These birds just fell dead from the sky.”

David’s eyebrows rose. “No way.”

“Yeah.”

David closed the book over his right index finger and stood. “Where?”

His shoulder brushed against her as he joined her at the windows. She took a tiny step away and said, “Over there—by those two workers.” A man in a blue jumpsuit pulled up in a baggage cart while another man, in an orange vest, ran toward him.

“You mean that dark stuff on the ground? Those are birds?”

“Were birds.”

“Damn.”

Blue Jumpsuit was gesticulating at the sky and the remains on the ground, apparently explaining the birds’ fatal descent to Orange Vest.

“That was bizarre,” Reese said. The unforgiving glare of the sun on the neon-orange vest and the glistening lumps on the concrete gave the scene a surreal cast—like overexposed film. “Have you ever seen birds just crash to the ground like that?”

“No,” David said.

Reese watched Blue Jumpsuit pull a plastic bag from a container on the baggage cart. He stuck his hand in the bag and squatted down to pick up the remains as if he were cleaning up after a dog. David went back to his seat, but Reese remained standing until the birds were removed, leaving only a smudge on the pavement: the stamp of their final moments. When she sat down again she felt unsettled, as if the ordinary world had been knocked off-balance and everything was now listing slightly to one side.

Beside her, David had returned to his book, and she saw the title angling across the cover in a retro-futuristic font: The Left Hand of Darkness. She glanced at her watch. Their plane to San Francisco had been delayed, but it was due to take off, finally, in an hour. The waiting had made her twitchy, and her leg bounced with nervous energy. She bent down to pull out her iPod from her backpack, and as she fitted the headphones into her ears she surreptitiously watched David turn a page. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, and the skin of his arm had a golden tone like sunlight during Indian summer. She took a shallow breath and forced herself to look at her iPod, scrolling through her music. But as the song titles rolled past, she wasn’t paying attention.

David was her debate partner. They had both joined the debate team at Kennedy High School their freshman year, but it wasn’t until junior year last fall that their coach, Joe Chapman, suggested they might work well together. And they did. They worked so well together that they qualified for nationals. When Reese’s mom found out, she was ecstatic. She even wanted to fly to Phoenix with them for the tournament, but her case ended up going to court during nationals—she was an assistant district attorney in San Francisco—so only Mr. Chapman had come with them.

Reese was glad, because she would have been even more embarrassed if her mom had been there to watch her lose. Afterward, Reese had called her from the locker-lined hallway behind the auditorium to tell her the bad news. Her mom tried to comfort her. “You can’t win them all, honey.”

Reese pressed her fingers to the bridge of her nose as if that would pinch off the disappointment that was spreading through her. “I know,” she said, schooling her voice to sound distant and detached.

But her mom wasn’t fooled. “I’m sorry,” she said gently, and Reese fought the urge to cry. She had wanted to win, of course, but it was the way they had lost that hurt the most. It had been all her fault. “Do you want to tell me what happened?” her mom asked.

I screwed everything up because—because—

Reese couldn’t even think the words to herself. “It just didn’t go well,” she said. Behind her the door to the auditorium opened, and David came out. Their gazes met briefly, but when he quickly looked away, chagrin rose in her, hot and uncomfortable. She blamed herself, but she knew David never would. Somehow, that made it even worse.

“I know you and David were well prepared,” her mom said, “and sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”

“Yeah,” Reese said, but her mom’s words didn’t register. David had stopped about twenty feet away, turning toward a bulletin board covered with athletic announcements. They were the only two people in the hallway; everyone else was still in the auditorium watching the final round.

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. I know how you are, honey.”

Reese clutched the phone with nervous fingers. Was David waiting to talk to her?

“Are you still there, Reese?” her mom asked.

“Yeah. Sorry.” Reese wrenched her gaze away from David and stared down at the floor. A gum wrapper had been tossed onto the tiles, the foil glinting in the fluorescent lights.

“Oh, honey.” Her mom sighed. “I’m sorry, but I have to go. We’re heading back into court.” Her mom was in the middle of a big domestic-violence case. Her favorite kind—Reese knew her mom loved putting nasty husbands behind bars.

“All right,” Reese said. She saw David run a hand through his short black hair, making it stand straight up.

“I love you too, Mom.” She hung up, and at that moment David pulled out his phone and dialed, turning away as he lifted it to his ear.

He wasn’t waiting for her.

She was both relieved and let down, and the conflicting feelings sent a rush of heat through her body. Pocketing her own phone, she slipped past David and headed toward the lobby to look for their coach. David’s voice echoed down the hall after her: “Hey, Dad. No… we lost.”

Now, in the airport as she sat beside him, the memory of that day—was it only yesterday?—and all its disappointments surged up again, slamming into the off-kilter tension that gripped her after witnessing the demise of those birds. Get a grip on yourself, she thought.

David nodded, and she stood, dropping her iPod back into her backpack on the floor. She saw Mr. Chapman threading his way through the seats toward them, carrying two bottles of water. He waved at her, and she waved back as she walked toward the center of the concourse. This trip could not be over soon enough. There were only a few weeks before school ended for the year, and thankfully no more debate practice. All of this weird crap with David would be done with, and she doubted they would be partners again next fall. That’ll be a relief, she thought, ignoring the twinge in her chest that told her she was lying to herself.

Reese passed the podium, where a blue-and-white-uniformed flight attendant was dealing with a line of five or six travelers. A harassed-looking mother herded two toddlers forward while dragging a suitcase and pushing a stroller. Reese was trying to avoid the stroller, her sneakers squeaking across the glossy floor, when she heard someone scream, “Oh my God!”

She turned to see a woman standing up, hands over her mouth and staring at the flat-screen TV hanging from the ceiling. The news was on as usual, and the Asian American anchorwoman had a hand pressed to her ear as if she were listening to a feed. Her face was grim. Reese took a few steps closer until she could read the headline at the bottom of the screen: PLANE CRASH IN NEW JERSEY KILLS ALL PASSENGERS.

Reese gasped.

The anchorwoman lowered her hand from her ear and said: “We have confirmed reports that an Airbus A320 has crashed outside Newark Airport. The cause of the crash has not yet been determined, but eyewitnesses have reported that the plane collided with a flock of Canada geese during takeoff. While airplanes are designed to withstand isolated bird strikes, apparently this was an entire flock—more than a dozen birds in all.”

A jolt went through Reese. Birds? In her mind’s eye she saw the birds plunge to the tarmac again.

Other travelers began to gather beneath the TV screen while the anchorwoman repeated the bare facts. The plane had burst into flames when its fuel tanks exploded upon impact. One hundred forty-six passengers were presumed dead. Emergency crew on the scene were hoping to salvage some clues from the burning mess.

“This is crazy,” said a middle-aged woman standing near Reese. “Those poor people!”

“What is this about birds?” said a man in a Red Sox cap. “How could birds do this?”

The anchorwoman interrupted her own report, saying, “We have news of a second crash, this time in the Pacific Northwest. A Boeing 747 has crashed onto the coast near Seattle.” The anchorwoman pressed her hand to her ear again. “Information is still coming in. We do not know if there are any survivors of this second plane crash.” Her face stiffened, and she stopped speaking for a moment. Finally she lowered her hand and looked into the camera. “Early reports indicate that this plane was struck by birds.”

Reese gaped at the television as a collective gasp arose from the travelers around her.

“We have Lamont Bell on the line from the Federal Aviation Administration,” the anchorwoman said. “Mr. Bell, what is the chance of two planes being downed by bird strikes within an hour?”

The man’s voice sounded scratchy over the audio transmission, but it was clear that he was unnerved. “It’s not—it’s very unusual. I’ve never in my entire career encountered two plane crashes of such magnitude due to bird strikes.”

“Are you saying that you believe the planes crashed due to a different, unnatural cause?”

“I—no, I’m not saying that. I don’t know what caused the crashes. We shouldn’t speculate.”

“Eyewitness accounts indicate the presence of large flocks of birds. Is it impossible that the plane crashes were due to bird strikes?”

“Mr. Bell, I’m afraid I have to interrupt you again,” the anchorwoman said. “I’ve just received news that there has been a third crash, this time in Texas. Once again, reports do indicate that bird strikes may have been the cause of the crash. And—” She stopped speaking, turning to look off camera. Someone offscreen handed her a sheet of paper, and when she faced the camera again, she read directly from it. “I’ve been informed that the FAA has grounded all aircraft in the United States while officials assess the threat level posed by these accidents.” She looked into the camera. “I’m afraid we have some bad news for travelers today. I repeat: The Federal Aviation Administration has grounded all aircraft in the United States.”

Reese’s stomach dropped, and the crowd around the TV monitor erupted with questions.

“What do you mean? Is my flight canceled?”

“This is bullshit!”

“What is going on? How could birds possibly do this?”

“It can’t be birds—it must be terrorists.”

“That’s insane. Terrorists can control birds now?”

As the questions piled one on top of another, louder and louder, Reese’s heart began to race. The birds that had smashed onto the runway. Three plane crashes. Three. One is unusual; two is a coincidence; but three… how could it be an accident?

People were bumping into her, craning their necks at the TV, talking over the anchorwoman. Reese shoved her way out of the crowd, her skin crawling as disbelief warred with growing panic inside her. What is going on? She halted in front of a bank of monitors displaying the flight departure times. One by one, those times blinked out and were replaced by a single word, repeated over and over: CANCELED.

CHAPTER 2

Reese couldn’t get through to her mom; the call went straight to voice mail. She checked her watch; it was 3:38 in San Francisco. She knew her mom was probably still in court, but Reese was stiff with anxiety. If terrorists were behind these plane crashes, how safe was her mom in a courthouse? David paced nearby, talking to his parents on his phone in Chinese.

Mr. Chapman lowered himself into the seat beside Reese, frowning, and pushed up his black-framed glasses. “This is a mess,” he said. Behind them, dozens of travelers were clustered around the podium, trying to rebook their plane tickets. CNN was still droning in the background, but Reese had stopped watching after the fourth plane crash in Colorado. She was filled with a kind of paranoid helplessness, and she kept glancing out the windows as if she were waiting for more birds to plunge from the sky.

“What are we going to do?” she asked, sounding more frightened than she intended.

Mr. Chapman gave her a thin smile. She thought he was trying to be reassuring, but he didn’t quite succeed. “We just have to wait. You’re too young to remember 9/11, but at first it was just a bunch of waiting. Waiting to hear from the president, waiting to find out who was behind it.” He shook his head and pushed up his glasses again, a nervous tick that betrayed his own tension. “Hopefully, there will be some news soon.”

David ended his call and walked back to them. “My parents are freaking out.”

“Do you want me to talk to them?” Mr. Chapman offered.

“No, they’ll be okay. They’re just shocked like everyone else. My dad’s company shut down for the day, and he’s driving home now.” David pocketed his phone, then looked behind Reese at the gate area. “Hey, something’s happening.”

Reese twisted around. The cluster of people at the podium had turned back to the TV monitor. She couldn’t see the whole screen from where she was sitting, but as the crowd quieted, the speakers in the ceiling could be heard clearly. A reporter said, “In a moment, President Elizabeth Randall will make a statement from the Oval Office. We’re about to—hang on, I believe we’re going to that feed now.”

Reese jumped up to get a better angle on the TV. President Randall was seated at the desk in the Oval Office and looking directly into the camera through her trademark wire-rim glasses. Not a hair was out of place, though she wore a look of grave concern on her face.

“As you know by now, we’ve been struck by tragedy today in our nation and in Canada and Mexico.” The president’s Midwestern accent was stronger than usual. “I want to reassure you that we are working around the clock to determine the cause of today’s crashes, as well as coordinating with the Canadian and Mexican governments to analyze whether there is a pattern in these tragic accidents. At this time, we have suspended all flights in the United States, and Canada and Mexico have done the same in their territories. As of tonight, we know of seven crashes across North America, and we hope that by grounding all flights, we will avoid further tragedy. I know that many of you are frightened and confused by the conflicting reports coming out in the news about the causes of these crashes, and I urge you to remain calm and refrain from speculation. You can rest assured that I have ordered a thorough and complete investigation into these crashes, and I will make sure that you are informed of our progress as things develop.”

The president paused and a look of maternal solicitude swept over her face. She even tilted her head slightly. “If you’ve been inconvenienced in your travel plans because of the flight ban, I’m sure you understand that this is in the best interests of our nation and your safety. As soon as it is safe to fly again, we will lift the flight ban. In the meantime, please join me in praying for those whose lives have been affected by these tragedies, here and throughout North America.”

The feed from the White House ended, and the news analysts reappeared. Reese sat down heavily, shaken by the president’s words. Seven plane crashes due to bird strikes? It sounded insane.

Mr. Chapman’s face was pale as he said, “I guess it’s a good thing our plane was delayed.”

Reese almost dropped her phone when it suddenly vibrated in her hand. The caller ID read: Catherine Sheridan. Relieved, she scrambled to answer it. “Mom! Did you hear the news?”

“Are you all right?” Her mom sounded both terrified and relieved. “Where are you? You didn’t get on the plane, did you?”

“No, it was still delayed when the flight ban started.” Reese rubbed a sweaty palm over her jeans. “I’m fine. I’m still at the airport.”

“Good. Is your coach still with you?”

“Yes.” Mr. Chapman had walked a few feet away to phone his wife. “And David’s here too.” He was trying to watch the news, though it was hard to hear over the din of travelers attempting to rebook their flights.

“I tried to call you earlier, but I couldn’t get through till now,” her mom said. “Everybody’s going home early; they think it’s a terrorist attack.”

Panic shot through Reese. “Mom, are you still at work? What if they attack government buildings? You need to get out of there.”

“It’s all right, honey. Don’t worry about me. I’m leaving soon. Are you staying at the airport tonight?”

The line at the Wendy’s counter snaked back and forth unevenly across the polished concrete floor of the concourse. Reese guessed there were about twenty-five people ahead of her, which put her right at the edge of the seating area next to the overflowing trash bin. An abandoned Frosty was perched on its side and dripping onto the floor, forming a pool of beige liquid. Reese looked away from the mess, her gaze sweeping up toward the windows set high against the ceiling. The sky outside was dusky blue. She had been stuck in this airport since eleven o’clock that morning—almost nine hours.

Earlier, she had called her best friend, Julian Arens, to tell him she was stuck in Phoenix. He told her that all major airports in the United States were full of stranded passengers, and already some people were concerned the airports might run out of food. If the planes couldn’t fly, they couldn’t bring in supplies either.

“They’re probably gone by now,” he answered. By the time she went to search out dinner, Julian was right. The deli cases that had once been full of sandwiches and salads were picked clean, and the only food left was the square-shaped burgers at Wendy’s.

The line was moving at about the speed of molasses, so Reese pulled out her phone to pass the time, touching the icon for the Internet. The Hub loaded right away, with feeds popping up one after the other, all about the flight ban. It was mostly people complaining about being trapped in airports, but there was a lot of chatter about possible causes for the plane crashes too. Terrorism wasn’t even the most outlandish one. She saw one feed declaring Aliens did it, earthlings. Colonization is coming! She let out a short laugh. Julian was always trying to convince her that E.T. had already visited Earth multiple times. One night in Dolores Park, while they were hanging out on the swings in the playground, Julian told her about meeting an alien abductee in Golden Gate Park the weekend before.

“He had an implant in his lower back—he totally showed me the scar and everything,” Julian said, gesturing with the stub of his cigarette.

Reese lit one for herself and said, “Yeah, I’m sure that’s what he was showing you.” She tossed the match down to the sand, watching as the flame sputtered out.

“You’re just jealous you didn’t get to see his ass.”

She remembered cracking up, almost choking on the smoke. Julian handed her the water bottle filled with vodka tonic, but she shook her head, wheezing as she laughed.

Her phone buzzed as she was scrolling through the feeds on the Hub; Julian had just texted her.

She clicked on the link, which took her to a blog post on a website called Bin 42. The headline made her eyebrows rise: Government cover-up of plane crashes continues with media blackout.

If you’ve been on the Hub today, you probably noticed that everyone around the world is freaked out about one thing: these bizarre plane crashes. But you might also have noticed that your feeds about them keep mysteriously disappearing. We’ve uncovered evidence that every 15 minutes, feeds relating to plane crashes, bird strikes, and the causes of such are routinely wiped.

Who has the power to do this? Only one entity: the US government.

Here is what we’ve gathered over the course of the day (and be forewarned: this report may soon be wiped, too, so if you want to keep this info alive, we suggest you mirror it immediately to your own site or download a copy for yourself. Better yet, revert to ancient technology: Print this out on paper!):

Official news and government reports state that only seven crashes have occurred in the US today, in New Jersey, Washington, and Texas. But continuous scanning of news feeds shows that at least 23 other planes have crashed today due to bird strikes within the continental United States alone.

Reports of these crashes are routinely posted online but removed shortly afterward. Caches of these news reports are eventually wiped as well. For a roundup of these reports (many now go to 404 pages), go here: www.bin42.com/34092

Video of plane crash sites has been circulating on file-sharing sites but is also routinely being removed. Don’t be fooled! We have seen these videos and they are not doctored! A roundup of videos (some of which may no longer be online) are here: www.bin42.com/34093

Mainstream news sources are being forced to adhere to a media blackout, so don’t go to the New York Times looking for confirmation—you won’t find it. The only mainstream account we have of any of the other crashes is from the Chicago Tribune; here’s a link to a screencap of that web page before it was taken down: www.bin42.com/34094

What does this mean for you? If you’re safe at home, we advise you to check your emergency supplies and prepare for the worst. If you’re a traveler stranded because of the flight ban, we suggest you find a way to drive yourself home. While there’s no evidence that airports are unsafe (yet), there is also no evidence that the flight ban will be lifted anytime soon. Meanwhile, check back here regularly; we will attempt to keep this site online as long as possible.

Reese clicked on the link to the Chicago Tribune article. She saw a screencap of a story about three plane crashes in the Chicago area, all due to bird strikes. The article was accompanied by a photograph of one of the Chicago crash sites. A plane had plowed a deep furrow through a field of corn, culminating in a smoking black mess. The tail of the plane was still visible; the airline’s logo could be seen through the smoke.

“Hey, the line’s moving,” said a man behind her.

“Oh, sorry.” As she stepped forward she clicked back to the original Bin 42 blog, feeling uneasy. She went to the video roundup page. Most of the links were dead, but one video showed a young female reporter in a mountainous area. Wreckage was strewn behind her. Reese couldn’t hear the audio, but the camera zoomed toward a person in a hazmat suit who was retrieving remains from the crash. Reese could barely see what he was holding in his gloved hands, but it stretched out toward the ground as if it was half liquefied.

Her stomach lurched. What was that? And why was the person dressed as if he were dealing with a biohazard? Her hands were clammy and the phone nearly slipped out of her grasp as she thumbed back to the blog post Julian had sent her.

But this time, she got an error message. It was gone.

“Can I take your order?”

Reese glanced up, startled. She had reached the front of the line, and a dead-eyed girl was waiting behind the counter. The overhead lights made her face look washed out and tired, and her ash-blond hair strayed in lanky strands from beneath her Wendy’s cap.

“You wanna order something?” the girl prodded.

Reese swallowed. “No.” She had lost her appetite.

David was sleeping on the floor in front of the plastic seats, his head resting on a rolled-up jacket, his back to the windows. Mr. Chapman was napping nearby, slouched in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs with his arms crossed and his feet stretched toward the glass. Night had fallen, turning the windows into a wall of dark mirrors. Reese saw herself reflected as a girl with flyaway dark hair and shadowed eyes in a pale face. Behind her the concourse was littered with travelers trying to sleep under the bright lights, legs propped up on carry-on bags, heads pillowed on lumpy backpacks.

She stopped beside David and looked down at him. One hand was curled beneath his chin, the other draped loosely over his stomach where his Kennedy Swim T-shirt—SHARKS OF THE BAY—had inched up over his toned stomach. He was captain of the swim team and a soccer player in addition to being a debater. An all-around golden boy. A familiar flare of self-consciousness burned through her. Angry at herself, she shoved away her feelings. What had happened between her and David was in the past, and she should just get over it. There was no use in thinking about it anymore; there were more important things to worry about now.

She nudged David’s shoulder with the toe of her beat-up black Chucks. “David.” He grumbled slightly but didn’t wake up. “David,” she said more loudly, and nudged him again.

He rolled over onto his back, shading his eyes from the fluorescent lights as he blinked up at her. “What?” His voice was clogged with sleep. “What’s going on?”

“I have to talk to you.”

“About what?” He pushed himself up, rubbing a hand over his eyes.

“Hang on, let me wake up Mr. Chapman.” She turned to their coach and tapped him on the shoulder. “Hey, Mr. Chapman.”

His eyes snapped open, and he jerked upright. “What? Reese?”

“Mr. C, we have to talk.” She sat down next to Mr. Chapman while David leaned against the glass across from them. In the window, Reese’s Rhapsody of Emily concert T-shirt was reflected in mirror image, and there was something disquieting about reading the words backward.

“What’s on your mind, Reese?” Mr. C asked.

“I’ve been checking the news on the Hub,” she began. She told them about the blog post that Julian had sent her, describing the Chicago Tribune article and the videos she had watched. “I think we should get out of here,” she concluded. “I think we should get a rental car and drive back to San Francisco.”

“The airline said they would start rebooking flights tomorrow,” Mr. Chapman said. “We should just wait.”

Before she could argue, David asked, “What’s on TV right now?” He looked past her at the concourse.

“What? I don’t know.” She turned to glance at the nearest TV monitor, expecting to see the news, but instead she saw a line of men in orange prison uniforms moving across a yard. The scene changed to a close-up on one gray-haired man, his mouth shining wetly as he spoke. Across the bottom of the screen, she read the words: Barred: Behind the Walls of America’s Most Violent Prisons. “It’s a prison documentary,” she said. “They’re on practically all the time.”

“It shouldn’t be on now, not when there’s more money to be made on a disaster.” David held his hand out to her. “Let me see your phone.”

Startled, she said, “That post is gone—”

“Just let me see it,” he insisted.

She unlocked her phone and handed it over. He pulled up the Hub, clicking through her history. “Hey, what are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m looking for a mirrored site. From what you said about Bin 42, I don’t think they’d only post it in one location.” She saw him entering something into her phone, swiping his fingers across the screen. A moment later he held the phone in front of her. It displayed a copy of the Bin 42 page. “Is this what you were reading?”

“Yeah, how’d you find that?”

“Magic,” he said with a grin that shot right through to her belly. She tried to cover it up by rolling her eyes.

“Whatever. Just read that Tribune article.”

“Hang on,” he said. A second later she heard the tinny sound of a video recording playing back on her phone. When he finished, he handed it to Mr. Chapman, who watched it with a deepening frown on his face.

“We should leave, Mr. C,” she said. “Who knows how long we could be stranded in Phoenix. I don’t think the news is telling us everything.” She lowered her voice. “And everybody’s going to be trying to rent a car to get out of here when they figure that out. We need to beat the rush.”

Mr. Chapman’s face was troubled as he handed her phone back to her. “I don’t know whether I buy it, Reese. That site—who runs it? Do you really think the government would go to the trouble of covering all that up? Besides, it’s doing an awful job of it if that’s the plan.”

Normally, Reese didn’t believe half the stuff Julian tried to convince her about, but tonight, Mr. Chapman’s skepticism frustrated her. “I don’t know who runs it. But who would be able to fabricate those videos so quickly? I think we should get out of here. If we rent a car and start driving tonight, we can be back in San Francisco by tomorrow.” The scene on the TV monitor changed again; now it showed a man in handcuffs being led out of a courtroom. She glanced at her watch. It wasn’t even 10:00 PM yet. “You know, David’s right about the TV,” she said uneasily. “The news should be on. Anytime there’s a disaster, they cover it twenty-four/seven.”

They all turned to watch the prison documentary. The news network’s logo was plainly visible in the corner. An inmate with bizarrely red eyes spoke to the camera, his face bearing a creepy, self-satisfied smile, and Reese shuddered.

Mr. Chapman said, “I suppose… it wouldn’t hurt to check at the rental-car counter to see how much it would cost.”

CHAPTER 3

The rental-car center was packed with people who had exactly the same idea.

“So much for getting a jump on things,” Reese said as they made their way to the back of the very long line. They passed a snack counter along the way, and the refrigerator case was empty except for a few crooked signs that read TUNA SALAD or HAM AND TURKEY. Reese’s stomach growled, and she wished she had bought that Wendy’s burger.

By the time they made it out of the airport, driving one of the last available rentals—a Suzuki sedan with a long dent in the driver’s side door—it was nearly morning, and Reese’s hunger had settled into a gnawing hollowness that made her both tired and cranky.

Mr. Chapman eased the sedan into the line of cars waiting to get onto the I-10 as the horizon turned gray, then pink. David, sitting in the front passenger seat, scanned through the radio stations one by one, but none of them was reporting any news—not even traffic, which was moving at a crawl.

It took an hour to go seven miles. As they inched their way onto the I-10, Mr. Chapman said, “David, look at that map they gave us and find me another way to San Francisco. If it’s this bad around Phoenix, I don’t want to take this all the way to LA. It’s just going to be worse there.”

Reese slouched in the backseat, checking her phone every few minutes for reception. She hadn’t been able to get a call through to her mom, and the stress that had been tightening her neck all night was starting to make her head pound. Outside on the freeway, it was practically a parking lot. A Toyota nearby contained a man and a woman and what appeared to be mounds of supplies: canned goods, toilet paper, blankets. A white VW that kept trying to cut them off was packed with five passengers, and the trunk was tied down over piles of suitcases. There were way too many people on the freeway for it to only be rush-hour traffic, and Reese couldn’t shake the feeling that she was missing something. What was driving these people out of their houses at the crack of dawn?

“Hey, we can take the next exit to 17 North,” David said, breaking into the silence. “It’ll take us to 93 North, and at Kingman we can switch to I-40, which goes west to 58, then meets up with 5 North to San Francisco. It even skips Las Vegas.”

“Great,” Mr. Chapman said. “I can’t wait to get out of this and get some coffee.”

The sound of honking erupted, and a battered blue pickup barreled down the shoulder of the road, causing more than one driver to scream out their windows at the truck. As the truck passed, Reese saw a man standing in the truck bed holding a giant sign. It read NEWS—AM 1438.

David switched to AM and cranked the dial until they found a scratchy signal that faded in and out. A man’s voice was speaking: “… secure compounds inland. Reports of military convoys heading toward the heartland… President Randall… wait for confirmation. However, classified documents leaked onto the Hub show that the government is prepared to crack down on dissenters.”

Mr. Chapman frowned. “Who is this?” He moved his hand toward the radio.

“Wait a sec,” Reese cried, trying to make sense of the jumbled phrases.

The man’s voice continued: “Citizens are urged to prepare for disruptions in food supplies due to interstate lockdowns and the air traffic ban… terrorism but speculation is rampant about causes. So-called rogue states would not have the coord… too much for one little nation—”

The static roared, and Mr. Chapman turned the volume down. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s just get home.”

Arizona, Reese soon discovered, was one giant sprawl of desert, at least on either side of the highway. In the distance, mountains lent a jagged edge to the horizon, but they were so far away that they seemed like a mirage. The reality, here, was flat dirt: a light brown broken by occasional bushes that clung obstinately to their patches of ground and were permanently bent by the dry wind.

On the road, as far as the eye could see, was traffic. As the day wore on, Reese saw more and more cars packed full of gear: tents strapped to the roof, blankets and pillows piled high in backseats. She increasingly felt as if they had joined a tide of refugees—only she didn’t know what they were fleeing from. At a Texaco just outside Phoenix, a man in a rumpled suit eyed her as she grabbed the last box of Hostess doughnuts, as if he wanted to take it from her. She hurried to meet up with Mr. Chapman and David at the cash register, hunching her shoulders defensively. It was hard not to be affected by the sense of paranoia that seemed to infect their fellow travelers. Even the gas station attendants who took their money had developed a kind of squinty-eyed anxiety. If she could only get some real information, Reese thought, she wouldn’t be so on edge.

But AM 1438 had long since faded to constant static, the only FM station that came in was playing old country music, and she still couldn’t get online on her phone. At least she had managed to talk to her mom for a minute before the connection broke, but there hadn’t been time to do more than say that they had left Phoenix. Now all Reese had was the view out the window, and it didn’t tell her anything except she was glad she didn’t live in a desert.

They reached Kingman at noon after a long morning of stop-and-start driving. They intended to take the exit onto I-40, heading west toward California, but a few miles before they reached the interchange, traffic slowed even more. “What the hell is going on?” Mr. Chapman said in frustration. He had drunk three cups of awful black coffee that morning, and Reese was beginning to wonder if she or David should take over the driving. Mr. Chapman was jittery and nervous from the caffeine and sugar, and hadn’t slept any more than the two of them.

Half a mile before they reached the exit, Reese saw what was holding things up: a roadblock. A string of state police cars was parked right across the ramp to the I-40, their red and blue lights flashing beneath the hot midday sun. State troopers in khaki uniforms waved them past. Mr. Chapman rolled down his window as they neared the roadblock, and heat blasted into the car. “What’s going on?” he called. “We have to get onto 40 West to get back to California.”

One of the troopers took a step closer toward them, looking down through his sunglasses. “You’ll have to drive up to Las Vegas and find an alternate route. Interstate 40 is closed here.”

“Closed? Why?”

“It’s closed,” the trooper repeated. “You’ll have to drive north to Las Vegas.”

Mr. Chapman stared at him, wrinkling his forehead.

“Move on, sir, you’re blocking traffic,” the trooper said.

“Are you serious?” Mr. Chapman asked. “That’s a—a four-hour detour.”

“Then you’d better get started.” The trooper’s hand moved to the weapon at his hip.

For a moment Mr. Chapman didn’t move, and Reese’s mouth went dry. What could you do when faced with a state trooper who had a gun? Mr. Chapman rolled up the window and drove on, cursing beneath his breath. “Sorry,” he muttered. “This is crazy.”

They reached the outskirts of Las Vegas in late afternoon. Traffic picked up as they approached the city, and Reese hoped it meant that the worst was behind them. The map they had gotten at the rental-car counter didn’t extend as far as Las Vegas, so at a Chevron off the freeway, Mr. Chapman climbed out to refill the tank and buy a map. He left the nozzle in the tank as he walked toward the mini-mart, and Reese unbuckled her seat belt and stretched out her legs in the backseat.

Reese took out her own phone and saw the battery indicator was at 50 percent. “Crap, mine too. We should have charged them last night when we were in line.” Her phone charger was in her carry-on in the trunk, but without an adapter to plug into the car, it was useless. “I’m going to turn mine off for now.” She looked up as Mr. Chapman returned from the mini-mart, waving a map triumphantly. He headed back to the pump, tucking the map in his back pocket. “Do you think we should stay in Vegas tonight?” she asked. She was tired. The nervous energy that had kept her alert all day was fading now that they had arrived in Las Vegas, and her lack of sleep was catching up with her.

“I guess it’s up to Mr. C,” David said. “I can help drive. Do you have your license?”

“Yeah.” Reese heard a stranger’s voice outside the window, and she twisted around to see a burly man in an army-green vest, his muscles bulging out of a black T-shirt, gesturing at Mr. Chapman. He was backing away from the gas pump, hands raised, face white. The man in the khaki vest was pointing a gun at him.

The shock of recognizing the weapon was like having a bucket of ice water dumped over her head.

The man shouted: “Give me your keys, now!”

Reese scrambled away from the window, her heart slamming into her throat.

Chapman was visibly shaking. “They’re—they’re in the car,” he said, but the man didn’t even glance inside the sedan.

He pulled the trigger.

The gunshot was so loud that everything Reese heard afterward seemed dull, as if it were coming at her from underwater. David was saying, “Shit, shit, shit.”

Mr. Chapman was on the ground. He had no face anymore.

She couldn’t drag her gaze away. It was nothing like the movies. The lifeless weight of Mr. Chapman’s body, the utter stillness of it, could never be replicated on film. Her stomach heaved.

The gunman turned to look inside the car. Reese saw a snake tattoo writhing up the man’s thick, sweat-soaked neck. Fear crashed through her in a frigid rush. She yelled, “David!”

“Get out of the car!” the man screamed at them, pointing the gun at the window.

“David, lock the doors!”

David scrambled into the driver’s seat, lunging for the door lock. The locks engaged with a thunk seconds before the man reached for the passenger’s side door handle. He snarled when the door wouldn’t open.

David fumbled with the keys that were still in the ignition. The engine roared to life. The man raised the gun again, pointing it at the handle. David floored the gas pedal, and Reese was thrown back hard against the seat as the car jerked forward. They heard a loud clank as the gas nozzle was yanked out of the tank, the hose snapping. There was a second gunshot, and Reese instinctually ducked down in the seat. The car bounced over a bump in the road so high she was sure David had just driven over a curb. She heard a horn blasting as the car turned sharply, throwing her onto the floor. The tires screeched. She heard another gunshot, popping like a firecracker—and then a giant boom.

“What the hell was that?” Reese was crouched on the floor of the car, the hair on her arms standing up as if she had stuck her finger in an electrical socket. She felt as if she was about to throw up.

“Jesus Christ,” David breathed, sounding stunned.

“What happened?”

“The freaking gas station blew up!”

Heart pounding, Reese pushed herself up to peer out the rear window. She saw the dangling end of a gasoline hose spitting fire. The pump where they had been parked was engulfed in flame, and fire licked across the oil-soaked concrete. People were running away from the inferno, abandoning their cars. She could no longer see Mr. Chapman’s body or the man who had shot him.

CHAPTER 4

The tires squealed as David wrenched the car onto the road, throwing Reese to one side again. Adrenaline surged through her as she clung to the top of the backseat, unable to tear her eyes away from the explosion.

The Chevron sign disappeared behind a plume of black smoke as a woman ran straight out into the road, her mouth open in a scream. A blue sedan slammed on its brakes to avoid hitting her, its tires burning black marks onto the pavement. Car alarms shrieked to life, a cacophony of sirens and honking horns.

Reese lost sight of the gas station as David turned the car abruptly, nearly tossing her onto the floor. “Watch it!” she cried, but he didn’t respond. She twisted around just in time to see him jerk the steering wheel to the left, barely avoiding another car. “What are you doing? David!”

He raced through a light just as it clicked red, and car horns blared at them. Reese climbed through the gap between the front seats, bumping into David’s arm as she awkwardly maneuvered herself into the passenger seat. Her hands shook as she fumbled the seat belt into place, just in time for him to slam on the brakes at the next red light. The seat belt cut into her chest and right shoulder as the car jerked to a stop. The sound of their frantic breathing filled the car.

They had entered a suburban neighborhood with cookie-cutter houses visible behind fences on either side of the road. But all Reese could see was their coach falling backward onto the gasoline-soaked pavement. The burst of blood as the bullet tore into his eye. “Oh my God,” Reese said. “We have to go back. Mr. Chapman—”

“He’s dead,” David said. Reese saw a vein snake down his temple as he clenched his jaw. The light turned green, and David accelerated through the intersection. “Nobody survives that.”

“We can’t just leave him there!”

“We should call 911. Is your phone working?”

She dug out the phone from her pocket and turned it on. So much for conserving the battery. There was only one bar of reception, and it was flickering. “I don’t think so.”

“Try anyway!” he snapped. An angry retort was on the tip of her tongue when she saw the slick trace of sweat on his cheek and realized he was just as freaked out as she was. She took a deep breath, trying to force down the panic churning inside herself. She dialed 911. David continued to drive as she waited for the call to connect. She heard the drumbeat of her own heart as she held the phone to her ear. Outside, there was no sign of the highway, only unremarkable houses, signs that meant nothing to her, and empty streets.

Her phone beeped. “Call cannot be completed as dialed,” said a computerized voice. “Please try again.” She tried again, staring down at the device as the telephone icon fruitlessly spun in a circle.

“It’s not working,” Reese said. “Give me your phone.” He tugged it out and handed it to her with clammy fingers. But she had no luck with his either.

The next time David pulled to a stop, she looked up. They were at a red light, and they were the only car in sight.

“Where is everybody?” she asked. “Why is this place so deserted?” All day they had been slowed down by traffic. The stillness here was unnatural.

“I don’t know,” David said, sounding strained.

Reese looked down at the two phones. There wasn’t even a single bar on either of them. “There’s no reception. We have to go back.”

David did not respond, and when the light turned green, he continued straight ahead.

“Did you hear me?” Reese asked.

“Yeah.”

“Then why aren’t you turning around?”

His fingers tightened over the steering wheel. “Because I don’t know where we are,” he admitted.

“But you drove—”

“I don’t remember which direction we came from,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ve been driving around trying to figure it out, but some of the streets are closed, and everything here looks exactly the same.” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

She gazed out the windshield at the nondescript houses. They passed a strip mall with an empty parking lot. The windows of a convenience store were smashed, bits of glass spread all over the ground. Inside the building, she could see empty shelves; it had been entirely cleaned out. Nearby, a sign for I-215 came into view, pointing to the right.

“Turn there,” Reese said.

“Why?”

Because this whole neighborhood is creeping me out, she thought. But she said, “Maybe if we get on a highway we’ll be able to figure out the way back.”

David turned right onto a wide street. They passed quiet office buildings; another strip mall; another gas station. Its windows were also broken, and the gas pump hoses trailed onto the stained concrete. The area was eerily quiet—as if it had been evacuated. The entrance to I-215 came at a deserted intersection where red traffic signals blinked slowly.

David clenched his fingers over the steering wheel. “I think we came from…”

“That way,” Reese said, pointing to the on-ramp for 215 East.

“Yeah,” he agreed, and accelerated onto the interstate. The eastbound side was bordered on the south by a high wall, blocking off the neighborhood they had driven through. The three lanes were as empty as the streets they had just come from, but across the low concrete divider the westbound portion of the highway was packed with cars moving at a crawl. They were full of passengers, just like the ones outside Phoenix. Some cars were stuffed to the brim with suitcases and bedding as well. It is an evacuation, she thought.

Ahead of them, they saw a green sign for I-515 and two highways, 93 and 95.

“Weren’t we on one of those? US 93?” David asked.

“I think so. We should take it south to go back to the gas station.”

But as they approached the exit, they saw that the southbound ramp was blocked off with movable concrete barriers and orange cones.

“New plan?” David said.

“Maybe we can turn around farther north.”

David headed for the 93 North exit, speeding up the elevated concrete ramp that swung around to the interstate. As their car swept up the curve, they could see the maze of the highway interchange beneath them to the left.

Reese gasped. “Look!”

On the southbound side was a long convoy of military trucks. Behind the trucks were tanks, their gun turrets all pointed south.

“Where do you think they’re going?” she asked, watching the trucks uneasily.

“It can’t be anywhere good,” David muttered. “Not with that many weapons.”

Reese twisted in her seat to look out the back window and saw a plume of black smoke in the distance. She wondered if it was the fire from the gas station. The tanks were all heading that direction. “Do you think we should turn around somewhere?” she asked.

“We’ll get stuck in that—whatever it is,” David said tersely, gesturing at the convoy.

“But what about Mr. Chapman? We have to go back and—and identify him.”

A bead of sweat worked its way down David’s right temple. His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Keep trying the phones. We have to get through sometime.”

Reese gritted her teeth. It felt wrong to leave Mr. Chapman there. But turning back meant spending more time in Las Vegas with its crazy carjackers and blockaded roads and army tanks. She definitely did not want to be in this city anymore. Every nerve in her body was telling her to run as far away and as fast as she could. “All right,” she said finally. “I’ll keep trying, and if I can’t get through, we’ll find a landline the next time we stop.”

The freeway was lined on both sides by tall concrete walls that blocked the city from view. Beyond them Reese could only see flat rooftops and a few scraggly trees. There were a few other cars heading north, but otherwise the multiple lanes of the highway were wide open. On the southbound side, the military convoy continued for at least ten minutes—Reese kept glancing over at the tanks as she tried to call 911—but after the convoy ended the road was deserted, as if it had been blocked off somewhere up north.

And then Reese noticed something else that was unusual. All the exits on the northbound side were closed off, though the on-ramps remained open. It was as if drivers were being purposely directed away from the southern parts of the city.

“We can’t get off the freeway,” David said, echoing her thoughts. “Are you having any luck with the phones?”

She took a shaking breath. “No.”

When the concrete walls ended, Las Vegas emerged as a city of drab industrial buildings interspersed with towering hotels. Billboards popped up on the side of the highway, advertising another Hollywood remake of Batman. They passed multistory parking structures, all empty. In the distance, casino lights glittered red and gold.

It wasn’t until they left the city behind, warehouses giving way to brown desert dotted with dark green brush, that the freeway exits opened up. It was after 5:00 PM now, and Reese had been checking their phones regularly, but reception never went higher than a single bar. As they departed Las Vegas, even that single bar disappeared. When the sun began to descend toward a range of mountains in the west, Reese said, “Maybe we should find a place to stop for the night.” The thought of resting suddenly made her aware of how exhausted she was.

“How much money do you have?” David asked. He sounded as tired as she felt. “I don’t know if I have enough. I don’t have a credit card.”

“I don’t either.” She reached into the backseat to grab her backpack. She pulled out her wallet and counted her bills. “I have thirty-five dollars. That’s not much.”

David slipped out his own wallet from his jeans pocket and handed it to her. “Here. See how much I’ve got.”

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Seventy-eight dollars. What can we do with that?”

She glanced at the gas tank. It was approaching a quarter full. “We’re going to need more gas.”

“You want to keep going?”

“What else are we going to do? I don’t think we can afford a motel room.” She stared out at the barren landscape. It was like another world: abandoned and desolate, but with the sun sending long shadows across the ground, it was also eerily beautiful. “Maybe we can find a town somewhere with a pay phone.”

“There was a sign for gas coming up. Ash Springs. We could ask for directions there.”

“I don’t know.” Reese frowned out the window at the desert. “What if the people there are freaks with shotguns? This looks like NRA country.”

David choked with laughter, and the unexpected sound of it cracked the tension that had held them tight since they fled the gas station. “It’s definitely not San Francisco,” he said. “No liberal organic hipsters in sight.”

An involuntary smile tugged at Reese’s mouth. “And you’re probably the only Asian person in a hundred-mile radius.”

“Never underestimate the Chinese. We’re everywhere.”

Reese laughed out loud and looked over at David. He gave her a quick grin, and Reese noticed that his mouth was slightly crooked when he smiled, the right side angling up more than the left.

One of the phones in her lap beeped, and she scrambled to pick it up as David asked excitedly, “Are you getting a call?”

Her brief moment of laughter was swallowed by sharp disappointment. “No. My phone battery just died.”

At least she was too tired to be freaked out about it.

CHAPTER 5

As they approached Ash Springs, trees sprang up on the side of the road, pushing back the desert. When the town came into view, it was nothing more than a trailer park followed by a Shell station and a flimsy-looking two-story building. A couple of cars were parked in front.

David pulled up to one of the four gas pumps and turned off the car. Reese opened her door, and the smell of the desert wafted inside: brush and dirt, soured slightly by the smell of gasoline. She and David got out, their doors slamming shut in two sharp cracks. The sun was setting.

“We have to pay first,” David said, reading the instructions on the pump.

“Maybe we should both go in,” Reese suggested. She didn’t like the idea of splitting up.

“I agree.”

She walked around the car and noticed with a pang that the gas cap was still hanging down from the tank. Mr. Chapman had never had a chance to screw it shut. She did so now, feeling a bit queasy. When she looked up, she saw David wince. “Let’s go,” she said, and headed inside.

Behind the counter, a bored-looking guy in a beat-up Pearl Jam T-shirt was turning the pages of a magazine. He glanced up when they entered but did not seem particularly interested in them. They wandered down the two short aisles, searching for maps. David found a road atlas that cost $16.95.

He flipped the atlas open to the page on Nevada and scrutinized the tiny lines and letters. “We’re on 93 North, right?”

“Yeah.” Reese peered over his arm at the map. “Look, there’s Ash Springs,” she said.

With his finger, he traced a line that jutted west from 93 North. “We can take this—318 to 375, then to 6 and 95 North.”

“North? Don’t we have to go west?”

“Ninety-five will get us to Reno, and then we can get onto 80 West. That goes straight to Oakland.”

She took the atlas from him and followed the white lines he pointed out. “Okay,” she agreed, memorizing the road numbers. “You want me to drive for a while? You could get some sleep.” David had the dazed expression of someone who had been trying to stay alert for too long.

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Action, conspiracies, and bizarre happenings lend an air of myst

Action, conspiracies, and bizarre happenings lend an air of mystery and heightened tension to Adaptation. Once I picked up this book, I couldn't put it down until it ended, and even then I wanted to keep reading. There is so much going on, so much waiting to be revealed. I haven't watched the movie Birds, but once I read about the birds dying in flocks and causing the deaths of countless people, I freaked out. I was scared that there was some conspiracy going on that was making the birds attack people and that there was going to be a huge, horrific apocalyptic disaster. Of course, events didn't progress to that degree, though many things did happen that did freak me out. Like agent stalkers, crazy dreams, sneaking out late at night, and many reports of deaths, humans and birds alike.

What made this story for me is how the plot was unraveled. From the mysterious way the birds are behaving to the crash and the changes overcoming Reese and David and their subsequent reactions to these developments, the secret behind Project Plato drives the plot, keeping my eyes glued to the pages from start to finish. The detailed references to many government projects lends credibility to the story. I'm not big into conspiracist theories, so I don't know how relevant many of these are to today's world. As this book takes place either in an alternate reality of our world or in the future (with a female president), it doesn't need to be entirely relevant to the present. What matters is that all these acronyms and secret projects heighten the suspense and tension. If it did try to do more than that, I'd probably run away. I'm not good with these kinds of technical terms!

This is one book where I found it hard to sort out my feelings about the characters. I like Reese. She likes to keep her emotions secure and stable, which makes it hard for her to start a relationship. Her thing with Amber is pure chemistry. Neither Reese nor Amber are quick to open up about themselves, and it's cool with Reese. She doesn't expect to start a serious relationship until she gets into one, and when something happens to betray her feelings, she locks up immediately. Her feelings of not wanting to be hurt anymore than she already has been is something that I feel many of us can relate to. Amber is an enigma. I know that she's gorgeous and seemingly very self-assured, but there's not much more other than that until towards the end. I'm hoping to learn more about her in the sequel to Adaptation. I also want to see how Reese and David's new abilities turn out, and I want to see more of the two of them as an item. You don't see many Asian guys into YA Lit, much less Asian guys portrayed in such a positive light. He's sweet, funny, and super supportive. I like him, Asian or not.

I've heard great things about Malinda Lo's writing but haven't read any of her works until now. After this book, I'll definitely be reading more of her works, past and future. I can't wait to see where Malinda takes us next with the sequel to this book!

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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Anonymous

Posted November 12, 2012

Adaptation

I don't really know what to make of this book. But I really liked the characters and I thought the premise was really intriguing. I enjoyed it, though the ending was a bit confusing. Warning: there is a cliffhanger and a sequel.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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When Reese and David are in the airport waiting for their plane

When Reese and David are in the airport waiting for their plane home Reese sees something odd out the window. A bird just fell out of the sky. She thinks no more of it until she hears disturbing news on the TV. A plane has been brought down because of birds. Next thing she knows she is seeing news alert after news alert saying planes are crashing because birds are flying into the engines. All flights are grounded till further notice so Reese, David and their debate coach decide to drive home.

They stop at a gas station but when their coach is on his way out he is stopped by a stranger trying to rob their car. The man shoots the coach but David is able to get them safely away. With birds dropping from the sky at an alarming rate and people freaking out Reese and David don't know whats happening. Reese takes over the driving when suddenly a bird flies straight into the windscreen and causes Reese to crash. She blacks out and when she wakes she sees she is in a hospital. They tell her she is lucky to be alive and that they had to treat her with top secret military care. She is made sign a non disclosure paper and left go home. When she is home she realises she isn't the same. What happened her? Why is she having these strange flashes?

This is my first Malinda Lo book. I was expecting kind of an end of the world type book but its not.

I liked Reese up to a point. She seems the typical all American girl. Smart, quiet and kind. She has a crush on David for ages but when he seems to reciprocate she pulled back. Then she meets Amber and its attraction at first sight. Now my problem is that Reese loved David but yet she pulls back and then when someone else comes along she dives head first into the relationship. She is conflicted with her feelings for both David and Amber yet her relationship with Amber is super quick. This is her first relationship with a girl so I would of liked a bit more hesitancy and holding back considering she still has feelings for David.

Onto David. He was a nice guy but a bit too nice. He felt like he had no backbone and just accepted everything. He didn't grow either through the book! Then we have Amber with her dyed hair and skateboard. I thought, here's a girl with some spunk. She was a good addition to the book but I still think her relationship with Reese should of been slower.

Plot wise I am still confused. The first half of the book was awesome. It had me gripped and I kept waiting to see what caused the birds to go crazy but I kept waiting and waiting and nothing, then when we did find out it was like the author remembered that part and just threw in an explanation but gave no reason as to why. It annoyed me.

Then when Reese and David finally get home after a month the pacing slows WAY down. It started off like a Apocalyptic book, then went to focusing on Romance, then onto Sci-Fi. I wanted the book to make up its mind!! The middle of the book was so dull that I wanted to put the book aside but I also wanted a reason to what happened the birds and whats happening to Reese and David. When we get to the final part of the book the action picked up again but again I had problems with the plot. There was so much intrigue and mystery at the start but when it ended it was so flat and boring. I honestly didn't care what happened any of the characters and nothing was explained properly. Im giving it 2.5 stars simply because the start was so good, its what happened after that brought it down.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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toreadisdivine

Posted April 25, 2014

First of all, I want to say that Adaptation is the first LGBT no

First of all, I want to say that Adaptation is the first LGBT novel that I’ve ever read. This doesn’t skew my review at all, and actually added a layer of depth to the book that might have been missed had it not been present. Honestly, the whole idea of the bisexual and/or homosexual nature of some of the characters didn’t bother me at all. I was mildly surprised, but the overall realization that the LGBT topic didn’t overwhelm or dominate the story just goes to show that not every main character has to be heterosexual. For someone who loves the men as much as I do, it was a breath of fresh air to be able to somewhat understand the attraction between the two girls. And to be honest, I liked it! First LGBT novel read: success!

Now aside from that aspect, I found the beginning to be great and fascinating, and that carried through until about the second third of the book. When Reese met Amber, things just slowed down considerably in the main plot. No big discoveries, nothing but relationship. Now I’m all for book montages of relationship, but if it lasts more than a chapter or two (and I do realize that it was about the self-discovery going on, but still), it gets in the way of what I really want to know. Like what the heck happened with Reese and David?! What about their big huge mystery going on?

Towards the final third of the book, things really picked up and I enjoyed it immensely. I stayed up until two in the morning to finish Adaptation, because after the first big action/realization, I was hooked. Couldn’t put the book down! Clues finally started to be put together, and a sense of the bigger picture happened. It was addicting. I raced through the last pages to get to the end, and when I reached the end… Wow. HUGE revelation just before the end, and then the actual ending… Adaptation had the kind of ending that could give it stand alone power, as well as allowing for following books. I was really satisfied with the ending, even though I want to know what happens next.

And just so you know – I’m really digging the Reese x David pairing. The description of them together, getting to know each other…ahem, physically (nothing more than PG13 happened though folks) was yummy. Men are just fantastic to write about in my opinion. All sexy and… Well you get the picture. I’m swooning a little.

Really good overall read! If you like puzzles and science fiction and a hint of mystery, I really recommend Adaptation.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Sarah_UK1

Posted April 17, 2014

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a re

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Hachette Children's Books and Netgalley.)17-year-old Reece is shocked when several planes across the US are brought down by flocks of birds, and together with her friend and her debate team coach, decides to drive home instead of flying. When the car they are in crashes, and Reece wakes up 27 days later, she finds herself having been given an experimental treatment, and is sworn to secrecy.What was this secret treatment? Why were birds bringing planes down? And what is so secret that she has to sign a non-disclosure statement?

This was an okay story, but it dragged.

Reese was an okay character, but she did seem a bit hesitant about things, and seemed to be led by other people rather than making her own decisions.

The storyline in this was a little odd. We started out with a fairly interesting event, got a bit of action, then suddenly leapt 27 days into the future, by which time the original exciting event was all over! Bit of an odd one that. We then had a very slow mystery playing out, along with a lesbian love affair, and a spot of redecorating. The pace was slow, the interesting moments were few and far between, and I constantly felt like I was waiting for the story to move on.

The romance was a bit of a surprise, as I hadn’t initially realised that the main character was going to fall in love with another girl. I didn’t have a problem with that, but it was a bit of a surprise. I have to say that Reece’s mother was very laid back about it though, if my mum caught me kissing another girl I doubt she’d laugh it off!

The ending to this was okay, but it was very open. I am interested to see what becomes of the love triangle more than anything, but another 480 pages of this seems like a lot to go through just to find out!Overall; okay story, but dragged a bit6.15 out of 10

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MatiRaine

Posted March 22, 2014

If you like conspiracy theories, aliens, government cover ups an

If you like conspiracy theories, aliens, government cover ups and genetic experiments, this might be the book for you. However, if you're like me, Adaptation could just leave you wanting for something more creative.

When I picked up this book, it seemed like something I would enjoy. The opening has a very 'end of the world' type feel to it, and while I felt it moved a bit too fast, there was something exciting about the story line. Getting trapped in an airport while planes are crashing mysteriously due to birds? That seems like a good recipe for a fun book. Once we hit the car crash and the traces of alien conspiracy started showing up, however, I started to loose interest.

I guess it just feels like a 'been there, done that'. Instead of building something new, this book draws onto all kinds of old material. While the opening felt fresh and creative, the middle made me feel like I was watching an old sci-fi on a dusty T.V. I've read some good sci-fi, and I've seen some creative takes on it. This really didn't have that feel to me.

The most creative aspect involved the birds, but even that gets pushed aside with this awkward coming of age sort of romance aspect that takes up half the book. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind romance or coming of age. But it felt like someone clipped those sections out of a different book and shoved it in the middle of this novel. I would have rather spent more time escaping Phoenix than hearing about Reese's confusing love life. Which is sad, because this is one of the few books that really branches out and diversifies the main characters. The twists and turns seemed to suck out anything 'real' about those interactions though.

The romance with Amber felt forced and unnatural, the opening felt rushed, and I had to spend too long suspending my disbelief. There were also smaller things that bugged me. Like David offering to drive the rental car. Almost all rental companies require drivers be 21 years old to drive, and even then you get fined extra. Then they crash it, and there is just no dealing with the fact they totaled the car. That is some massive debt they just piled on their debate coach's family. The longer I read, the more I started questioning the story line. It felt like a campfire story not a book. There was nothing solid in this novel that drew me in enough to believe what was happening.

Good Sci-Fi has enough in it to make you question what's around you. This book just tried to build on the paranoia that already existed. By the end, it just felt cheesy, and I just wasn't buying any of it.

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Anonymous

Posted February 10, 2014

Yea! For bisexual representation. The writing got a little diffi

Yea! For bisexual representation. The writing got a little difficult for me in the middle but overall this is a very good read. It's an interesting story line with a well written main character. Realistic portrayal of young adults / teens without going overboard on the drama.

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Anonymous

Posted January 23, 2014

"Adaptation" by Malinda Lo is mainly about; Reese, Amb

&quot;Adaptation&quot; by Malinda Lo is mainly about; Reese, Amber and David. Reese and David are debate partners, who get in a car crash around Area 51. They're miraculously revived by a top secret government procedure performed by Dr. Brown. They are forced to swear not to let anyone know about this procedure because if they did they would be executed. As soon as they return home to San Francisco, Reese meets her lovely girlfriend Amber and strange things start to happen, they begin to be followed by men in black suits and there are recording devices and cameras hidden in their homes. In a strange turn of events, amber disappears, and Reese and David are then abducted by another government agency by the name of Blue Bird, they are obsessed with finding out the procedure used to help Reese and David recover, later finding out they're not completely human anymore.

I personally loved this book, it was strange and had a lot of twists and turns, i wouldn't recommend this if you're a slow reader but if you can catch on things and enjoy science fiction this book is perfect for you.

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The lack of consistency from this author was more than a little

The lack of consistency from this author was more than a little annoying. The main character seemed to be all over the place to support the plot line instead of allowing the character to take the lead.

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Anonymous

Posted October 28, 2013

Not Sure

What I was going for when I bought this book was more dystopian. If that's what you are looking for, I recommend Article 5.

This book trailed off topic sometimes. I just made a face to myself and said, 'What does this have to do with anything?' Yet, the story line of Adaptation was very good. I loved that. But I felt like her writing was a bit mediocre. Sometimes I thought I could write parts better than the author.

This book actually turns out to be a science fiction book. The whole time during the book you know something is up and the ending was a bit disappointing because it really wasn't what I expected.

The author foreshadows future events casually by asking questions to herself, in which I just roll my eyes.

Not exactly sure if I would recommend. This book is addicting because of the story line and characters, but the author needs more practice.

Currently contemplating reading the sequel.

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Anonymous

Posted August 20, 2013

Good book!

I liked this book alot! :)

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Anonymous

Posted May 14, 2013

Loved it

After i fineshed it i told my mom that she might like the book. After she finished the book she said it made her blieve in concperansies

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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